UCLA Tops USC for the Third Straight Year, and Oregon May Be the Best of the Top Four for the National Playoff

PublishedNovember 27, 2014

College Football Wrap-Up – Week 13

After Alabama brought Mississippi State back to reality last week, major college football’s 13th week was the most boring of the season. Only unranked Arkansas’ 30-0 shutout victory over #8 Ole Miss stuck out.

The rest was business as usual, with 9 ranked teams posting unimpressive, marginal victories, and 9 more ranked teams looking much better.

The 9 lesser lights included:

#3 Florida State needed a field goal in the last 3 seconds of the 4th quarter to nip a 6-5 Boston College team, 20-17 – The unbeaten Seminoles (now 11-0) hardly look like a potential national championship team.

#24 Louisville (8-3) hung on to beat unranked Notre Dame (now 7-4) by 3, 31-28; #16 Wisconsin (9-2) needed everything it had to best Iowa (7-4) by 2, 26-24; and #12 Kansas State (8-2) could only win by 6 over unranked, 6-5 West Virginia, 26-20.

#23 Nebraska (8-3) led 21-7 at the half, but #25 Minnesota (8-3) won the second half 21-3, and the game, 28-24. #20 Missouri (8-2) did a tad better, holding off 6-5 Tennessee by 8, 29-21. Even #6 Ohio State (10-1) at home could only beat 3-8 Indiana by 15, 42-27, and needed 21 points in the last quarter to do it.

And then 3 ranked teams racked up some points, but did it against weak AA teams this late in the season. #10 Georgia (9-2) beat unranked, AA Charleston Southern by 46, 55-9; #1 Alabama (10-1) beat up unranked, AA Western Carolina by 34, 48-14; and #14 Auburn could only down unranked, AA Samford by 24, 31-7. Georgia, Alabama and Auburn all deserve demerits this week for taking the easy way out.

The 9 winners with merit included #9 UCLA (9-2) at home winning its 3rd straight against #19 Southern California (7-4), 38-20. It was not that close as UCLA led 38-14 after 3 quarters.

#4 Mississippi State (10-1) bounced back from its loss to Alabama last week by shutting out 3-8 Vanderbilt, 51-0 – The Commodores (now 0-7 in league play) have been a doormat in the SEC for too long. They either need a new ship or a new captain; they would be more competitive in the American Athletic Conference.

The final two big winners got noticed for special reasons.
#21 Oklahoma made short work of 3-8 Kansas, 44-7, as true freshman Samaje Perine, a 5-foot-11, 243-pounder, ran his way into Oklahoma Sooner history by rushing for 427 yards on 34 carries (12+ yards per carry) and scoring no less than 5 touchdowns.

Perine broke the major college football rushing record set only 7 days earlier by Wisconsin’s Melvin “Flash” Gordon with 408 yards on 25 carries (16+ yards per carry).

Perine scored on his first carry with a 49-yarder, and then added touchdowns on runs of 33, 34, 66 and 27 yards, all of which may have proved his prowess as a runner or spotlighted the lousy, stinking sieve called the Kansas Jayhawk defense.

Perine had a career day that he will not likely repeat again. One thing is for sure: Perine will not be racking up 427 yards on the ground against Alabama, Wisconsin, Penn State or Louisville.

#2 Oregon (10-1) continued to dominate with a 44-10 whipping of 2-9 Colorado. Oregon has become an item, being ranked #2 in the 4-team national playoff standings. After losing 31-24 to Arizona in its 5th game, the Ducks have reeled off 6 straight wins by averaging 47+ points and giving up 24, a 23-point winning margin that feels more dominate than either #1 Alabama, #3 Florida State or #4 Mississippi State.

Know this: If the current #5 playoff team, TCU, #6 Ohio State or #7 Baylor should lose another game, and UCLA should win out (beating Oregon for the Pac-12 title), you will see UCLA among the final 4 teams competing for the national title.

Southern Methodist University is still winless at 0-10 and Marshall is still unbeaten at 11-0 after taking care of UAB, 23-18.

Colorado State is now 10-1 and ranked #21 in the AP Top 25 Poll and the Top 25 Coaches Poll.

In a battle of two teams trying to become bowl eligible, Washington (now 7-5) topped Oregon State (now 5-6), 37-13, and Husky QB Cyler Miles, who got no kind words last week, played much better in leading the Washington to a very important victory.

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